Read Understanding Research Online
Authors: Marianne Franklin
Understanding Research (39 page)
ACADEMIC
WRITING?
As was the case in the previous chapter, this section takes a moment to pin down this elusive yet palpable category, academic writing.
A basic truism of academic work in arts and social science faculties is that this sort of writing is distinct from others; journalism, creative writing, reports in the natural sciences or industry, policy-writing (see discussion in
Chapter 1
; ‘What is academic research?’). As Carol Smart notes, echoing many programme handbooks and study guides to academic writing, the key skills in this area
appear to be the ability in writing to convey knowledge of a field (i.e. competence), to structure an argument tightly (i.e. literary and intellectual skill), and to arrive at a position based on an evaluation of the material available (i.e. an ability to adopt a defensible and well argued stance).
(Smart 2010: 3)
She then goes on to note a paradox underscoring the everyday realities of academic research in the round for experienced and novice researchers: this model assumes that the researcher already has at their fingertips ‘
a literary competence
which can not only cover adequate amounts of material but which will form a
convincing argument in an engaging way
’(ibid., emphasis added). This ‘literary competence’ is also implicitly an analytical one, pulling disparate, copious, and diverse sorts of data into some shape in order to lend some coherence to the final report is the lion’s share of the work (see
Chapter 7
). As I have noted earlier, however much time has been needed to design, read-up, and then carry out the actual research, writing it all up takes just as much time. Let’s make three distinctions right now:
- Whilst creative writing and academic writing are considered distinct, it would be wrong to suggest that the latter is devoid of any level of creativity. Indeed, as
Smart and others note, effective academic writing is also about developing a narrative. When the narrative lines are not provided by set conventions (for example, reports that follow a strict format, those around presentation of large survey results), this aspect is where a particularly tough struggle occurs, and late in the day. No matter how much writing has been done in earlier parts of the final report, these chapters – if this is how they were conceived – or term-essays, proposals, articles or conference papers, all need revising in light of how the research has progressed; in terms of the information gathered and insights gained, and in terms of your more theoretical thinking in general. - Giving shape to the analysed material entails not only narrative skills – telling a ‘story’ of some sort albeit one with certain attributes and claims to accuracy (or even truth-values) and contribution to ‘knowledge’. It also requires editorial and meta-level organizational skills. These decisions take place even within the stricter parameters of some dissertation formats (see
Chapter 2
); in which order to arrange certain sections or chapters for instance, what goes in the main text and what is relegated to notes, indeed whether to include notes at all. You need to be able to hold down one, perhaps more than one, narrative thread throughout the detail, but also be able to move in and out of these details (from literature references, to figures, to quotes, to images and tables of results) to the wider perspective. - Moreover, the ‘story’ you are telling has to do more than describe, more than persuade, and more than generalize. It needs to be original – your own words – yet embedded in, and so cognizant of the work of others; in short the ‘field, or ‘literature’. You need to show that you have processed and ‘analysed’ all those data gathered in such a way that others can not only interact with these data on their own terms but also respond to your argument – the findings and conclusions you present. This is why two dissertations, or reports on the same data can be very different; not just in style but also in the conclusions presented.
This next section echoes points raised in earlier chapters about the form and objectives of academic research at dissertation levels in particular. All the planning aside, and data gathered notwithstanding, there is no easy way around this; to produce a written report you need to write in a certain way. Here academic writing for degree qualifications adheres across the board to some general principles. More radical innovations and formats aside (for example, practice-based degrees where a film, script, novel or performance are part of the final work, creative writing degrees), your final report will have to show that you have managed the required elements outlined in Chapter 2. In other words, the head, middle, and tail ends of the final piece moves, on the whole, from the general and more abstract through to the concrete and specific (your empirical findings/philosophical exegesis, or fieldwork depiction) and then back to the more general and abstract.
Because this area of academic work is quite complex in technical and legal terms this section looks at citation conventions as different levels of difficulty. Not unlike computer games, getting to grips with the mechanics of citation, how these relate to issues around how best to acknowledge sources, written and unwritten, sees most of us moving up a level as we become more adept. In addition, gaining fluency in different citation conventions helps avoid accidental forms of plagiarism (see
Chapter 4
). The way in which these formalities are also carriers of various expectations, even prescriptions about style for academic writing will become clearer as well; from formal sorts of ‘house-style’ required by journals and book publishers to informal understandings about the role played by footnotes, graphics, and written text.
First, some basic rules of thumb, whatever the citation conventions you opt to choose, formalized and codified by a number of academic associations and institutions:
- All verbatim quotes need to be clearly indicated and fully referenced; according to the citation convention adopted.
- When citing a source cited by someone else you are reading, you need to indicate this clearly, unless you have read the original source yourself. The rule here is the initial source of this ‘second-hand’ citation as (x, cited in y, [date]).
- There are more than a few students who ‘crib’ in this respect for some high-profile thinkers (Foucault, Bourdieu, Butler, Habermas, Beauvoir are names that immediately come to mind) by passing over this point and so implying that they are directly informed about the work cited.
- This is sloppy because it ‘lifts’ the work of one from the work of another without due context or acknowledgement. It can also catch you out if you are ever quizzed on the author in question; it happens and it really should not.
- There are more than a few students who ‘crib’ in this respect for some high-profile thinkers (Foucault, Bourdieu, Butler, Habermas, Beauvoir are names that immediately come to mind) by passing over this point and so implying that they are directly informed about the work cited.
- Direct quotes need to be unedited, deletions notwithstanding (indicated by an ellipsis). Now, in the case of gender-exclusive language (where ‘he’ no longer suffices as representing all humankind) or socio-politically sensitive terminology, use of ‘sic’ (Latin, ‘thus’) can indicate this without excessive intervention.
- When not directly
citing
the text as such, if your text is directly referring to, or influenced by someone else, then you need to provide an exact reference even when only alluding. This means that page numbers are primary; specific page/s where the reader can find the passage quoted, or alluded to. - Any neologisms, or ‘cool ideas’ or expressions picked up during the course of conversations or in lectures you want to use in your own work, and when you know where it came from or who said it, deserve due recognition; it is a courtesy and best practice which requires sometimes some deft use of notes.
- Bottom line: anyone reading your work should be able to follow your reference trail. For online sources, given their fluidity, if you cannot keep track then noone else will. There is a fine line between legal and nominal forms of mutual recognition.
Now, on the specific technicalities. With the above principles in mind, the following brief summaries of the main citation/style guides available to researchers hopefully will make more sense. The details, however, are important for you to get under your belt. Here practice makes perfect and consistency is your best ally; after all if consistent even errors are easy to correct. Very briefly the main guides are as follows:
The American Psychological Association (APA) style guide: This is based on the author acknowledging ‘a source within your text by providing a reference to exactly where in that source you found the information. The reader can then follow up on the complete reference in the Reference List page at the end of your paper’.
2
The Chicago Manual of Style
: This breaks down into two sorts of citation formats; one similar to the APA above and the other which places all citations into the notes. To cite Concordia University once again,
The Chicago Manual of Style
has
two basic documentation systems: (1) notes and bibliography and (2) author-date.
. . . The notes and bibliography style. . . . presents bibliographic information in
notes and, often, a bibliography. It accommodates a variety of sources, including esoteric ones less appropriate to the author-date system.
The author-date system . . . sources are briefly cited in the text, usually in parentheses, by author’s last name and date of publication.
3
The Modern Languages Association (MLA) style guide: This guide, popular in languages and humanities, also favours citations in the text (‘parenthetical references’) with the full reference being provided in the literature list; the MLA stipulates that
The alphabetical list of works cited that appears at the end of your paper contains more information about all of the sources you’ve cited allowing readers to refer to them, as needed. The main characteristics are: The list of Works Cited must be on a new page at the end of your text; Entries are arranged alphabetically by the author’s last name or by the title if there is no author; Titles are italicized (not underlined) and all important words should be capitalized; Each entry must include the publication medium. Examples include: Print, Web, DVD, and Television.
4
Finally the Harvard Referencing System: As you can see references in this book follow this system, the preferred house-style of the publisher. Namely, ‘if you use this system you cite the author’s surname, the year of publication and the page reference immediately after the quoted material’.
5
Extrapolations aside for online and other sorts of sources, this system is a distillation of those above.
Some departments, if not institutions, and this depends again on geography and disciplines, have mandatory citation requirements following one of the above codes or another combination. Learn these first. You can acquire the next citation ‘language’ another time. For those working in places where more then one citation convention is permitted, settle on the one that suits you and stick to that for the duration of that project. If you change halfway you need to go back and adjust backwards.
You will see that for citations of over forty words, the usual practice is to indent the paragraph. For less than forty words, ‘quotation marks’ and then the reference (in brackets or in the note) will suffice. As for online citation conventions, most style guides now incorporate these into their guidelines. However, there are resources that focus on these sorts of material because, as most readers will know, the web is comprised of more than straightforward literary material: multimedia, images, people’s words, links, and hypertext.
6
Before moving up to Level 3, and because most research dissertations for university degrees are completed without the benefit of a professional copy-editor from a publisher, coming to grips with citation technicalities also takes us into question of academic style in general and preferred disciplinary conventions in particular. Not only students but teaching and research staff have difficulty maintaining consistency. It’s not only a skill but also an aptitude; some are better at this than others. Nonetheless paying attention to these formalities is part of the territory.
Now, the Top Ten Tips on what to remember when checking and tidying up how you cite any sources for academic purposes, in the main text, in notes, and in the literature list:
- Consistency is the rule; even if the format you apply turns out to be not quite right, if you apply it consistently throughout then corrections are easier.
- Practice makes perfect; writing academically involves the ability to recall, and then call up what others have said. This is why getting a grip of key literature in the field/s within which you are working is a cornerstone (see
Chapter 4
). - Page numbers matter. Dates matter. Correct spelling of authors’ names matter (a lot).
- Publishers are part of the citation, as is (strictly speaking) where publishers are based. All this information is provided inside the book cover (the ‘copyright’ or ‘imprint’ page), the top or bottom of a journal article.
- Authors can be one person or several, so all names have to be cited at least once and in the literature list. Authors can also be associations (for example, The Internet Society), organizations (for example, the World Bank) and, if there is no other indication, web-page/newspaper/media organizations (for example, the
Guardian
, Fox News). Look closer, though, when citing online sources, particularly from news and entertainment media: somewhere you may well see the author’s name. - Online sources are cited the same way as traditional ones. The main difference is that you need to include the full URL (see
Chapter 5
) and (usually) the access date. Why? Because the latter provides an indication of currency and because web-pages change, move or go offline. - Decide whether you want to have a ‘clean’ main text or want to integrate any citations to references as you go; this book does the latter. This is where footnotes and endnotes come in.
- Notes can be allocated for citations (depending on the format used) as well as additional comments.
- All citation formats, save those that include a full reference in the notes, require a fully referenced literature list.
- Finally, particularly for research students: your ‘Bibliography’ should actually consist only of works you cite, or refer to in the dissertation. Hence the term ‘Literature Cited’, ‘Literature List’, or ‘Reference List’. Technically speaking, a ‘Bibliography’ is a comprehensive reference of all possible literature in the field (see also
Chapter 4
on ‘undertaking a systematic literature review’).
